4 January 2019
Mr John Stewart
Strategic Support
By email: request-526340-
Council Offices
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Market Street Newbury
Berkshire RG14 5LD
Our Ref: FoI/IR/2018/16
Your Ref:
Please ask for: The FoI Reviewing
Officer
Direct Line: 01635 519441
e-mail: xxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Mr Stewart,
Internal review of FOI request: Newbury Football Ground Spectator Stand
Following receipt of your email of 5 December 2018, a review has been undertaken
of the Council’s handling of your Environmental Information Regulations (EIR)
request for information, made on 15 October 2018, which was as follows:-
‘Regarding the football ground at Faraday Road, Newbury, please can you send
me evidence of ownership (by the council, tenants or third parties) of the large
seated spectator stand, namely documents relating to:
Football club leases (including terminations):
Newbury Town FC around 1995
AFC Newbury FC between 1996-2007
Newbury FC between 2008-2018
And since 2008:
Insurance rent statements/remittances
Building insurance premiums, policies & schedules
Asset register details
Building surveys & inspections
Legal letters, title deeds, certificates of ownership
Payment remittances, sales receipts when the stand changed hands
Correspondence, emails, phone conversations, meeting minutes which refer to
the "stand".’
On 12 November 2018 Suzi Kenchington, Information Compliance Officer, sent you
an email advising that the Council was extending the time to respond to your request
by an additional twenty working days, under Regulation 7 of the EIR 2004. This was
because of the complexity and/or volume of the information requested and therefore,
a response would be provided by 10 December 2018.
A response was in fact provided on 30 November 2018, which was as follows:-
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‘The spectator stand was transferred (as a gift) to Hungerford Football Club by
the outgoing tenant, Newbury Football Club, when the current lease term
ended.
The Council does not hold evidence of ownership of the stand, as it was not
purchased by the Council. Further, the Council does not hold evidence from any
third party (including current or previous tenants) that would demonstrate
ownership of the stand, or other fixtures.
Leases / licenses relating to the land are held by the Council, but these do not
indicate ownership of the stand in a conclusive way. Should you wish to
arrange to examine these records yourself, the Council may be able to make
them available for inspection directly. It is not considered feasible to provide
electronic copies owing to their size and the difficulties in collating a copy (many
of the records are bound and cannot be easily photocopied/scanned, so the
time and cost of doing so would be prohibitive).
The title ownership deeds relating to the land can be requested from the Land
Registry directly.’
However on 5 December 2018 you sent the following email to the Council:-
‘In my previous FOI request you sent me correspondence showing an WBC
officer was aware the stand was being sold, so in this follow-up FOI request I
fully expected some more information. It has taken you 35 working days (nearly
twice the normal allotted) to give me a rather vague refusal statement and no
recent evidence which I know exists. I am assuming that your response has
been restricted in some way which is hardly "FOI", so I ask you again to please
send some of the more readily available, recent electronic document
information on my list which you have ignored to mention, namely from the
beginning of last year 01/01/17 (if it makes it easier than paper hardcopy):
Insurance rent statements/remittances
Building insurance premiums, policies & schedules
Correspondence, emails between WBC, Newbury FC, Hungerford Town FC’
In reviewing the handling of your request, I have been mindful of the Council’s duties
under the EIR 2004 and guidance issued by the Information Commissioner. I have
also made enquiries with Bill Bagnell, Special Projects Manager and reviewed
correspondence on the matter.
I am aware that you made the following EIR request on 30 August 2018:-
‘Please can you send me all the correspondence (emails, letters, names of
WBC officers/councillors etc between all concerned parties) leading up to and
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relating to Hungerford Town Football Club's application to demolish the stand at
Newbury Football Ground, Faraday Road (case number 18/02046/DEMO).’
Consequently, you were provided with an email exchange from July 2018 between
Council officers and Hungerford Football Club. This included an email sent by a
representative at Hungerford Football Club to Colin Broughton, the Council’s Asset
Management & Strategy Officer dated 16 July 2018, which stated:-
‘We have agreed with Newbury F.C to purchase the stand at Newbury football
club.’
The implication that the stand was being sold by West Berkshire Council to
Hungerford Football Club appears to have led you to believe that the Council holds
further information with regard to ownership. However, the stand is not being
purchased by Hungerford Football Club but is being transferred as a gift to them by
Newbury Football Club. This is confirmed in the email below sent by Bill Bagnell to
Hungerford Football Club:-
‘From: Bill Bagnell
Sent: 25 September 2018 14:58
To:
Cc: Colin Broughton <xxxxx.xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx>; Richard Turner
<xxxxxxx.xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx>
Subject: Football Stand
Dear
Ref our earlier conversation, the point of contact for access at the ground
remains Colin Broughton, with myself as back up.
Thank you for confirming that the stand is being gifted to Hungerford Town
Football Club by XXXXX as chairman of the old outgoing Newbury Football
Club. The Council is not receiving any consideration in respect of the stand
being passed to Hungerford.
Before demounting the stand, I would be grateful if a method statement could
be provided. Though works and associated safety are the responsibility of
those taking away equipment, the Council are required to reasonably ensure
those responsible have given due thought to matters relating to Health & Safety.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries.
Kind regards, Bill Bagnell’
Consequently, I can reiterate that the stand was not purchased by the Council, it has
never been owned by the Council and it does not hold evidence of ownership or
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evidence from any third party (including current or previous tenants) that would
demonstrate ownership of the stand, or other fixtures.
However, as you have already been advised by Suzi Kenchington, bound copies of
leases and licenses relating to the land are held by the Council, although they do not
indicate ownership of the stand in a conclusive way. Therefore, should you wish to
examine these records yourself, the Council may be able to make them available for
inspection directly.
I am also aware you have had separate email communications with Nick Carter,
Chief Executive and he has already advised you of the following in his responses
detailed below, which are a repeat of your FOI request:-
On 12 October 2018
‘There is no evidence that WBC owns the stand. It is considered a tenant’s
fixture and for which the Council has no responsibility. A previous tenant paid
for the stand and acquired planning permission for its erection and a
subsequent tenant took on responsibility for that fixture.’
On 25 October 2018
‘The Stand was purchased by the Football Club many years ago. Since then
Football Club has gone through many changes and an argument could be made
that it has reverted to the landlord although we take the view that since it was
purchased by a tenant it should remain as a tenant’s fixture. Aside from this, I
understand that the Stand is not being sold but gifted to Hungerford and is an
arrangement between Hungerford and Newbury FC.’
On 4 November 2018
‘As I mentioned previously the legal position is open to interpretation however
as far as the Council is concerned the Stand has always been a tenant fixture
so when the Football Club left earlier in the year it was agreed it was theirs to
use as they saw fit. They have decided to gift it to HTFC which the Council is
happy to support since it has no use for the Stand.’
This completes my review of your request. If you are not content with the outcome of
the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information
Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire
SK9 5AF
www.ico.org.uk Yours sincerely
Rachel Craggs
Principal Policy Officer (Information Management)
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